I have an older computer and I got a boot sector virus so I formated the hard drive using my bro's gateway dirver cd. When that was finished I went to install win98 and when it gets done preparing my comp for setup of 98 a messege flashes on my screen saying I have a boot sector virus how can this be I did a format. I need to figure this out please help meI have an older computer and I got a boot sector virus so I formated the hard drive using my bro's gateway dirver cd. When that was finished I went to install win98 and when it gets done preparing my comp for setup of 98 a messege flashes on my screen saying I have a boot sector virus how can this be I did a format. I need to figure this out please help me

Since the virus is in your boot sector, formatting will not get rid of it. Try this page for info; http://antivirus.about.com/cs/downloadsdos/index.htm?once=true&

Try to ermove, then re-add your disk partition using fdisk, reboot then reformat. Then "fdisk /mbr".

Also keep in mind that this could be due to a setting in the bios itself, regardless of if you originally had a virus or not. Try the above solutions first, just to make sure though. Be sure to use a CLEAN boot floppy, made on someone else's computer, just to be safe. Be sure to write protect after making it and before you use it in your machine, or it will probably get infected also. If, after all this, the warning still flashes, it could be that "virus protection" is enabled in your bios. Every time a program or utility tries to write to the main boot record or partition table and this setting is enabled, a warning will flash on your screen, possibly with beeping or something similar to alert you of this fact. Win98 setup will generally change the mbr to cause it to boot win98, regardless of what other operating system(s) you have installed. Just for your info....

By the way WOrm has a couple of bootdisks that might help you out here, one of the extention disks includes the dos virus scanner F-Protect, might be good for a try... here's the link to his sight: http://jason-n3xt.org/dos/downloads/bd.htm good luck!

Uhh.... site that is...you won't be able to see through his eyes, but I'll work on finding a site for that...Maybe he needs to post a spell checker too LOL...

Hi Ryan ! IF you find that you really DO have a virus in the MBR ( a BIG IF ! ) . These can sometimes be VERY difficulr to remove and certainly an ORDINARY format will NOT remove it . I have found it necessary on occasions to COMPLETELY remove ALL DATA , including MBR by performing A LOW LEVEL FORMAT on the drive . Now this is NOT a TRUE LOW LEVEL FORMAT but consists of putting zero's onto ALL SECTORS of the drive. This is performed using the FREE specialised software provided by the DISK MANUFACTURER. The two main programs are :- SEAGATE'S DISK MANAGER and MAXTOR'S POWERMAX. This usually covers most of the drives ever fitted to computers ' Once this process is performed you simply FDISK then do a routine DOS FORMAT and install the Operating System of your choice. However you MAY be lucky and you could have JUST A MISREPORT of a virus as suggested by some of the previous posters. Anyhows GOOD LUCK ! Hugh